Sarayu Narasimhan

Sarayu Narasimhan

Experience Designer in Berlin, Germany

About

Design for me extends far beyond my professional life. Right from hunting for the ideal dish scrubber, optimising my daily cooking routine, to learning about Buddhism in ancient Uzbekistan, I allow design to flow into my day-to-day pursuits. I find that my curiosity in a variety of topics indirectly enhances my abilities to be a well-rounded design professional.

I enjoy working on practical applications of design in everyday digital products, from strategising on and finding perfect solutions for design problems to executing them on tools like Figma and Principle.

Work Experience

2024 — 2024
Senior Product Designer at Deutsche Bank AG
Berlin, Germany
  • Created design flows and screens using an extensively tokenised design system for all DB apps.

  • Worked in an Agile environment, partnering with various stakeholders to take key product and development decisions by proposing design interventions.

  • Consistently supported my team by providing context and resolving sprint blockers, using visualised solutions to drive progress.

2024 — 2024
Senior UX/UI Designer at Airsiders GmbH
Berlin, Germany
  • Designed screens, flows and a design system for wayfinding kiosks, now live in Rome 
Fiumicino airport.

  • Made improvements to the flight booking and management platform based on unique offerings.

2023 — 2024
Senior Experience Designer at Zenova
Berlin, Germany
  • Designed a car subscription product from scratch, with a focus on 
the post-booking and management screens.

  • Delivered the entire product: wireframes, dev-ready screens, 
prototypes and variations in time for the MVP release (in 4 months).

Designing a complete app from its inception to the final product was extremely fulfilling as a solo designer, as I put to use my experience from the studio I worked at previously.

2020 — 2023
Bangalore, India

A fast-paced, six-member studio with long-term clients in tech, finance, education and other domains.

I was involved in the following:

  • Researching, wireframing, prototyping and designing more than 10 digital products and web experiences.

  • Finding effective ways of expressing the ideas behind our design concepts and articulating them to ensure they ‘sell’.
    Immersing myself in all aspects of a project to ensure I am able to take full responsibility for it (including the ones I wasn't directly working on, so that I have context in case of potential project swaps).

  • Coordinating with multiple clients and setting the week-on-week deliverable expectations through smooth and professional interactions.

  • Initiating new talent and junior designers into the studio's working protocol and introduced them to the subtle aspects 
of studio life. Gradually, built their confidence to lead projects.

Here are the things I learnt while working at Liquidink Design:

  • Showing is better than talking. Tangible iterations and prototypes that can be seen and interacted with, short sprints with no big reveals and periodic validation and communication ensured we achieved the highest standards of design delivery and client satisfaction.

  • Deliver clickable prototypes early on This way, we were able to discuss the product almost as if it were the final thing (also, we preempted the questions that usually arose while transitioning between static screens).

  • Collaborate as one team rather than agency and client It was important to first understand our client’s business goals and then make sure our designs aligned with them. It was a key factor in collaborating as a single team and guaranteeing that the product was resolved from end to end.

  • Done is better than perfect (but I think you can achieve both) When time is a constraint, I had always felt like having an imperfect but tangible design to talk about is better than only discussing concepts and ideas. Working at Liquidink however, taught me that at every stage, any design piece can be pushed one step further: to perfection.

  • Be consistent and responsible I could see and feel an increase in the team’s efficiency when I would take on the task of a follow-up with a client, or do the research for a presentation. It eased the burden on my colleagues when they knew they could trust me with something I'm good at.

2018 — 2020
Designer at Text Mercato
Bangalore, India

Working at Textmercato was my first introduction to the world of digital design. I designed the UX and UI for an AI-powered product cataloging software.

2016 — 2018
Book Designer at Mapin Publishing
Ahmedabad, India

Starting off as an intern, I worked my way to designing 4 books end-to-end. This involved preparing page grids and typography, as well as printing and production-related tasks. I also coordinated and corresponded with authors and associated teams.

My first job in the print medium gave me a solid foundation in the design process. It also gave me a firm grounding in Indian crafts, textiles, art and architecture that continues to influence my work today.

Side Projects

2020
Book Designer at Freelance

I just designed and produced a non-fiction book called Bangalore Through the Centuries that launched in June '23! Here’s a quick look:

Contact

Portfolio
LinkedIn